<p>Hello, this is my first post here. I applied and got into both the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon and the School of Engineering at Cornell. However, I'm not sure which one I should go to. While Carnegie Mellon seems to be ranked a little bit higher for computer science, I'm not sure how much of a difference there would be between the two schools. In addition, being an Ivy League school, I feel Cornell may be slightly more prestigious (though that doesn't even really matter much). </p>
<p>Hopefully I'll get a chance to both of the schools before the deposits are due, but still... what do you guys recommend?</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon and Cornell are just about even in prestige, think about other things other than the major that attract u to each school(campus, fin aid, etc.) and if u might change majors latter on.</p>
<p>The School of Computer Science at CMU is one of the top programs in the country for CS -- at the same level as MIT or Stanford. You really can't get any prestigious if you're going into CS than CMU. While Cornell has a good CS program, its not considered more prestigious because it's an ivy. Congratulations!</p>
<p>If you are doing CS I would recommednd going to CMU. Aside from being #1 (blah, blah, blah) they are currently building The Gates Center dedicated entirely to the CS school. Also, don't buy into the stigma that is associated with CS majors at CMU. While the generalizations do exist, a lot of people I have met there are in CS and are really cool, sociable people. Pittsburgh is also a great college town with a lot of things to do. However, if you are looking for a more bucolic campus and that sense of classic "prestige" that ivy-league schools offer, then Cornell is also a solid option. Congratulations on getting into both.</p>
<p>While people you meet on the street will probably give Cornell more prestige than CMU for any field you give them, I'm pretty darned confident that anybody within the field of CS will consider CMU to be more respectable than Cornell.</p>
<p>One of my patients went to Carnegie Mellon for CS, got recruited early by Amazon. Now works for them at a starting salary of 160,000 plus stock options. All at the age of 21. Go to Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>I thought CMU was, by far, the best CS school in the nation, and probably the world as well. They will only get better with the Gates Center in '09.</p>
<p>I was on a tour of CMU last year and they kept talking about the Gates center and how good of a CS program they had. If I'm not mistaken, Google and Microsoft have offices on campus? Not sure if I misheard. Oh, and by the way, all this was during a tour for admitted graduate civil engineering students. Clearly, their CS program is by far the best program at CMU and what they pride themselves on. It's probably the best in the country.</p>
<p>CMU is Google's East Coast hub, and in the new Collaborative Innovation Center they built at the western-edge of campus (where Forbes goes over the train tracks) they have a ton of other businesses housed. I believe it's the only building in the world where both Apple and Microsoft have office space.</p>
<p>In addition, CMU is building another CIC building across the train tracks which is expected to increase ties to industries for a number of other departments.</p>
<p>"While people you meet on the street will probably give Cornell more prestige than CMU for any field you give them, I'm pretty darned confident that anybody within the field of CS will consider CMU to be more respectable than Cornell."</p>